Iron and Gold
by FroggiJ
Summary: Plz R&R! Movieverse/Post-Movie. Two college 'geniuses' open themselves up to a world they never imagined, and all the pleasure and pain it involves, finding out what can go wrong when you build a better way to save the world. Language & suggestive themes
1. Chapter 1 Bare Metal

The Cold of Bare Iron

"I **am** Iron Man," Tony _Fucking_ Star was quoted as frequently as possible on the evening news. And the midday news. On _every_ news broadcast, actually.

Tony Stark, as many knew, was not hte "superhero type" - something else he'd admitted to that day, which wasn't quoted nearly as often. Nobody cared that he wasn't the type. Scratch that. **EVERYBODY** cared, that's why he was still on the news, after so many months. And time and time again, they played the same three clips over and over.

1. Catching the car while in the Iron Man suit.

2. The Suit, with owner, flying.

3. Tony's most famous quote.

And still, that was it. No specials on the suit, what it was made of, how it worked. Stark himself had hardly been seen since his little announcement. Rumor was that he was even keeping this from the military, for the time being. Some speculated that it was a selfish act...others thought it was the smartest thing he'd ever done. Most, however, really didn't give a shit if a millionaire-genius built himself a superhero costume.

--

Jess slammed the remote control down in frustration.

"What now, doll?" Dan asked of the blonde-haired woman he had his arm around.

"Nothing new. Tony Stark can build a nearly-indestructable suit in a terrorist's cave, and I can't even so much as come up with a single topic for my class project when I've had a semester and a month to start planning it. It's just...frustrating."

"Yeah," said the slight hint of a New Jersey accent Daniel Crowe still had, after his years in California with Jess. "But Tony Stark has a little more available to him, and had a bit more of an incentive at the time than a passing grade. Besides, he's been brought up doing this sort of thing, you know? The man's a genius: And you're just a grad student," as soon as he'd said it, he knew he'd regret it. "I didn't mean - "

"Yeah, you didn't mean: You'd better not have meant! I spent my whole life around people who 'don't mean to say' I can't do anything, Danny, and after twenty-four years, it's getting a little old. I should be able to do that, I should be given the chance. But have I been? No. Because people see the blonde hair and the big rack (a/n: I can see Danny rolling his eyes in the background now) and the flabby parts that come with the rest of it, and nobody else wants to take a chance on someone who isn't perfectly photogenic or someone who actually had to work to become a genius, who wasn't born a Tony Fucking Stark of the world."

"You're really sexy when you get mad at the world," Danny's defense mechanism kicked in. Luckily it was a tactic he'd found Jessica could never resist - He always managed to calm her down with that - and his slow, dangerous smile that made her melt.

"Oh...Shut up."

"Nope," the corners of his lips were still slightly turned up, even as he moved in to put them against hers. It was almost innocent, until he lingered around for another, and then one more - this last one certainly not small enough to be considered a peck. Another thing he knew got to her, kissing her when she was so mad, a crude diversionary tactic. Crude, but it worked...and she knew it.

"You suck," she muttered, once she remembered she'd been in the middle of a tyrade.

He just pulled her closer to himself there on the couch, kissing all over her face and neck lightly, like she was precious to him, something he cherished.

Well, there went being mad at the world, right out the proverbial window.

--

Nearly two more weeks had passed, getting her that much closer to the college's project deadline, when Dan pulled up to her rented forest-front property in Northern California. Jessie was on the front porch steps, a milky drink in one hand and a piece of paper she was balling up in the other.

As Danny stepped out of the junker truck he drove when his motorcycle - in the bed of the truck on this particular night - was in need of repair, she chucked the balled up failed-idea-on-page at him as hard as she could. Being only paper, though, it landed at his booted feet instead of its intended target: his thick skull.

"No, I'm not fixing that damn thing _again_," she said, smirking as she shook her head at his dreaded noise-machine, fixer-upper bike. Which she'd made repairs to numerous times, having a way with machines...and mechanics, but that was another story.

"You don't have to, it's not broken," Dan picked up the wad of paper and threw it back at Jess, causing her to hurriedly move her drink - he'd almost made it into her Kahlua, an offense punishable by death.

"Oooh, you're just asking for trouble tonight," she teased. "And that's a first...So why's it in the back of your truck?"

"He was already pulling it out over the tailgate as she asked it.

"Because I couldn't drive both over here at the same time," he rationalized, and she contemplated throwing something more than paper at his head next time, for the smart remark. "And I figure you're gonna want to keep - " a small break in his thought process as his tires hit the pavement below, wrenching the smaller vehicle out " - the truck for a while."

"No thanks, I prefer my Toyota, and besides, I don't work on trucks." This, not surprisingly, got a steady sigh from him.

"Will you get your cute ass over here and look at what your loving boyfriend of years brought you?" he started up that torturously slow smile again.

"Oh, you brought presents, not more work?" she inquired, getting to her feet and moving over next to him and his bike.

"Well...it depends on how much alcohol you've had tonight... I'm kidding!"

"Okay, smartass, what...the _hell_?" she peered into the bed of the truck. It looked like five other trucks grew legs and brains, mated, and threw up right there. There were some things she recognized, others she didn't. Either way...she had absolutely no idea what he was thinking, bringing her a bunch of greasey, old, used parts.

"Okay, so before you start freaking out thinking I want you to build me a new engine -"

"Talk fast, Romeo."

"You're sleeping with a genius who figured out your final project for you."

"I am? Who is he, I wanna kiss him."

"Well...I've got this mechanical engineering final, and you've got your tech final, right?"

"Uh-huh..." skeptical, to put it mildly.

"So you've got the insides and I've got the body of the beast covered."

"I'm still not getting it, can you speak American and not New Jersey please?"

"We're gonna split a project. I deal with the iron, you make it so that a man can use it."

It took her just another blink to catch on, finally. "Oh my god, you're insane. You've taken one too many skids on that bike of yours, haven't you?"

"No no no no ... look at me, Jessie... We can do this. We're both always talking about how we wanna prove ourselves, well I know the metal and you know the math, we can - "

"But I don't know how arc reactor technology works, I don't know how to make something hover let alone fly, I'm not an airplane mechanic, I definitely don't build missile weapons for a living like Stark does - "

"Yeah yeah yeah, I know that, but I don't give a shit. Listen to me. You're smart, I'm smart, it'll work out. Look at this stuff," he knew how she worked - she had to see what she had available before she could figure out exactly what to do with it, sometimes. He was hoping this was one of those times, at least. "What do you see?"

"I see a bunch of junk that's not gonna make it a foot off the ground no matter what I do with it..." she trailed off, having said that very quickly after he'd turned her towards the truck bed again. A quick sip of her Kahlua and cream, and she moved, using one of the tires to stand on the side of the truck, and take a mental survey of what he had all in there. "This just...it's not gonna do it, Danny. I don't even know where to start with something like this, I mean..."

"You just hang onto these a day or so, it'll come to you. Look, I've got everything here to make two or three cars run, we have to be able to do some sort of...something, with it. Right?"

"Yeah but you can't put a gasoline-powered suit on and expect it to be a good idea."

"You're right, we can't use gas, and neither of us know anything about arc reactors. What else?" He was trying to force the scientist out of her he knew, deep inside, she had in her.

"I ... " she sighed, heavily, and took a large cooling fan in her hand. "We could hook up a battery and a circuitboard..."

"There ya go, see? You're a genius," he climbed up into the bed of the truck and started stepping over the parts in it to get to her. "You're freakin' Einstein, I love you, look at you," he took his hands and put them to each side of her face, starting to kiss her again in that way that meant trouble. "If anyone besides Stark can do this, it's us. Right?"

"No, this is stupid, it's not gonna work, it'll be a miracle if we can get anything besides the metal to do its job," she sulked a bit. Little black raincloud, much?

"What's your favorite color?"

"What? Green, why?"

"Because Iron Man's got red and gold, I'm gonna build you a beautiful green suit to wear."

"Build me a... wait, what? Why do I have to be the one to fly it?"

"You complain about me behind the wheel of something that stays on the ground, if we're gonna make this thing based on what we know about it from the news, do you really want me driving?"

"Good point..." she conceded. He kissed her again, there, before hopping over the side of the truck, and eventually helping her down to the ground.

"It's gonna work, I promise. I have faith in you, I'm giving you that chance you wanted. It's not the most state-of-the-art, but it's here, right in front of you. I trust you can do it," he took her up in his arms again, pulling her against his chest lightly. "Do you trust me enough to believe me, and to have faith in yourself?"

"Not sure yet..." she replied, running her hands through his dark curly hair, that he kept somewhat long-ish, but not quite to his shoulders.

"Well uh...maybe I could, I dunno," his hands went around her hips, pulling them into his a bit, "convince you?" There was that devilish grin again.

"It's gonna take a lot of convincing, Dan," she said it seriously, but smiled back at him.

--


	2. Chapter 2 Killswitch

Same disclaimer applies, I own nothing but the characters I made up for this fic, I do NOT make any profit off of this (in fact I'm broke), please don't sue me for borrowing the world.

--

**Killswitch**

It did indeed take a full night of 'convincing', not that Jessica complained about that one bit. The sun, according to the morning news, was due to rise at approximately 6:25 AM over the California coast. Jess was up around 4:45.

In the darkness of the night, she was really glad it was half a mile or so to the next house, because, in the growing heat of mid-spring, she went outside and through the junk parts in nearly nothing - Dan's t-shirt looked good on her, and she threw on a pair of loose khaki shorts she'd had stuffed in the bottom of her closet for a while.

By six, you could hear the birds starting to sing, the morning doves cooing. And the steady hum of a soldering iron plugged into an extension cord that stretched all the way into her garage from the kitchen, good luck trying to keep any bugs out of the house with the window screen having been removed in order to do this. Danny got up and, with the way the tiny house was situated, had to go through the kitchen to get to the bathroom.

He could be heard cussing all the way in the garage when he tripped over the extension cord in the near-dark of 6:15 AM to pee. After he did what he went to do, having nearly broken his neck along the way, he headed outside, guided by the dim light in the garage along the darkened pathway, and didn't even bother to knock when he came into the garage. Jessie had a bunch of parts littered across the table, everything from fans to wires to - a window switch in her hand?

"What in the hell are you doing at six in the morning?"

"Actually, I've been up all night, I couldn't sleep so I came out here and got to work."

"You did? Really? You should've woken me up, I'm sure I could've knocked out at least a little bit more of that spare energy you have," he said slyly, moving behind her to put his arms around her stomach from behind. Danny peered over her shoulder, watching her solder. "So what're you doing instead of doing me?"

"Well, a couple of things. I'm just rigging this up so we have a kill switch for tests, we're going to need to do a lot of them to figure out exactly how to get enough lift to hover, let alone fly, and it's gonna take a long while to get the right amounts in proportion to my weight."

"Why do you alway mention your weight? You're perfect. You're not a stick, I like that about you."

"Yeah, well, even if I was Twiggy I'd need to do a test...okay, maybe not Twiggy, she gets blown away by the wind, but you know what I mean. Kiera Knightly at least would have to run tests to get the right ratio going."

"You could kick Kiera Knightly's ass," he whispered seductively into Jessie's ear, kissing and then taking her lobe into his mouth, playing with it with his tongue gently.

Jess couldn't help but laugh, at that, and put her soldering stuff down - for the moment. "Hey...we also need to make a deal."

"I dunno, I'm not into extreme bondage, like being soldered to anything...fur-lined handcuffs maybe."

"You wish I had fur-lined handcuffs," she quirked her brow over her shoulder at him, there. "No, but seriously...this is a huge project, and, depending on what accessories we add onto it, it can be a very dangerous weapon. We need to promise each other to never use it in the wrong manner, never abuse it, and, if it's...actually working when we're done and isn't just a fancy-looking hunk of junk, we need to do something good with it once we're done with it. You promise?" She turned around in his arms, to face him there.

"I swear on everything I hold holy. Truth, Justice, and the pursuit of getting chicks with the suit but not doing any harm to my fellow man."

"Okay, good. Just as long as you bring home a hot guy for me. Ooh...Brad Pitt would be nice," she didn't even smile, just barely turned up the corners of her lips.

"Sounds like we have ourselves a deal. Seal it with a kiss?"

She just nodded, barely, before his lips covered her own.

--


	3. Chapter 3 Test 10

Usual disclaimer, Beaches...

--

**Test #10**

"Okay...Test Number Ten, Flying mechanism basic for body to lift ratio, checking connection to the battery...Battery's still good, all juiced up. Fan platform modifications have been made to stabilize but still allow basic takeoff...let's hope I don't try to split my skull open this time," Jess said as she carefully stepped onto a metal grate platform, with a giant cooling fan hooked up to a motor that they could control the RPM's on to see how fast it would need to go to pick her off the ground. It would be slightly easier now, as opposed to two weeks ago - Jess had since almost maniacally worked on the electrical portion of their starting experiments, causing her to drop a bit of weight, which she liked.

Unlike the first nine tests, the fan platform - their first experience in the flying department, being plain and simple in construction - was now secured to trees on every side by...well, by whatever they could find; some twine here, a bit of chain on the other tree there. The first eight configurations of this attempted lifting device had failed miserably to do anything but kick up dust, not flying at all, and the ninth configuration had been an even worse disaster. It sent poor Test-Dummy Jess to the emergency room, when it did get off the ground. Just a mild concussion, but she still felt the day in the hospital would be better spent making adjustments to the flying rig.

Either way, new safety precautions had to be implemented, at Danny's insistance. Thusly the restraints on the rig, and the motorcycle helmet Jess now wore.

"Motor is set up to the same specifications as last time, and I'm turned on and filming here," Dan chimed in for his part. Meaning the camera he was using...honest.

Jessie, however having other things on her mind, gave a rather perverted little smirk to that. "That's what you say every night, baby."

He chuckled slightly in response. "I knew a camera would be a good investment. But first, work. Test number ten is ready to go when you are...no more jokes," he warned, knowing her sick sense of humor. She'd probably say something about always being ready to go with him.

"Spoil Sport," she stuck her tongue out at him from below the helmet, her blonde hair in a ponytail hidden away somewhere in there. "Alright, test number ten, initiating in five...four...three..."

Upon counting down completely to zero, Jess flipped the little window-switch starter in her left hand, and in a portion of a second the motor attached to the fan started up, lurching up after a moment. Luckily, after last time, Jess was a bit more ready for such a reaction when the battery was allowed to give power to the motor. The whole platform turned into a giant reverse-fan, sucking air from above to spit it out below, and caused the platform to lift, if only slightly for now.

"Whoa...oh god...okay...chains are working, securely holding the platform... and oh my god, I'm flying...sort of..." Jess started, half-crouched on the platform for balance in her sweats. "I'm hovering...okay...I _think_ I like this setting for now. So...we have to figure out how to get this much lift out of something smaller that can be fit into a shoe," she clicked the window switch again, to the 'down' position, and the thing dropped quickly back down to the ground, not two feet up with the restraints on.

"Okay, I think I got a good shot of the meter when you were up there, so we can review the tape, check out the rpm-to-output force-to fan size ratio. Along with our other failed attempts, we can figure it out easy enough, I think. I just need to finish making the helmet for that thick skull of yours so that we can actually strap some of these onto your feet and not get you killed," Danny smiled at her, after turning off the camera, and the two met just by the lift platform.

"Yeah, well that's the tricky part, isn't it?" she snickered a bit. "Okay...you go back to your workshop, I'll hole up in mine. As soon as you're done, text me the measurements for the boots you're gonna make, so I know exacly what I have to work with, size-wise. After all...size matters."

"Ouch," he laughed a bit there, but leaned forward to kiss her lightly. "Okay. I'll see you later then. I'm gonna go watch the news and see if I can scheme up a blueprint close to the one he made, 'cause I'm sure he took the time to make it as aerodynamic as possible, which saves me a lot of work, if I get it right."

"You will doll, I have faith in you," Jessie kissed him again lightly, putting her arms around him a bit, just smiling at him. "We're really doing this, right now, aren't we?"

"Well, I dunno, I wouldn't really call this foreplay..." he winked devilishly.

"You snot, the ONE time I'M not being dirty..."

He laughed broadly. "Hey...we're really doing this," Danny nodded. "I love you, Jess. My little genius," his hand moved up, taking off the bike helmet from her head finally. "My inspiration. Okay...I'm gonna go get to work. I'll see ya."

"I'll look forward to it."

--

"I've got good news and bad news," Dan said over the phone later that day.

"Okay, bad news first..." Jessie always liked to get it out of the way, then the good news might seem that much better afterwards. And she never liked to end something on a disappointed note.

"Flight stabilizers."

"Shit."

"And nobody knows what the hell kind of metal that is. It's some alloy Stark likes to use, it's a lot more pliable than just steel or iron, but it's also tougher than, say, sterling silver or anything. Since this is just a school project, it's not gonna be very accurate, but it'll work. Suit-wise, at least. I can temper and fold the steel like they used to for ancient swords and the like, but it's gonna be a pain in the ass."

"And it's going to be heavy that way. I bet that thing doesn't move with out an electrical impulse helping out the person inside, so that means more work for the both of us if we want it completed. I told you we were biting off more than we could chew, you know - "

"It's gonna be fine," Danny interrupted. "Look, I can get it thin - really thin, it won't be the safest, you can't fly at high altitudes, but it'll be lighter and it'll still take a lot of anything you do with it, and - "

"Look, I don't want you to do that. If you're gonna make me a suit, do it the right way. Start with the feet, at least we can start with that, since we're already working on the flight mechanisms, if nothing else then - "

"Then we have flying boots, and that's a good project anyways, for both of us."

"I knew I loved you for a reason," she teased lightly. "Want some more bad news? I don't think, with all that metal, that I'm going to be able to carry around two car batteries hooked over my shoulders..." Funny thing was, neither of them had a clue as to the fact that carrying around his own battery was exactly how Tony Stark had started this whole thing.

"What the hell else are we supposed to use? I mean...we can't put gas in there, and doube-A batteries only last so long."

"Well, we could try doing solar. We'd still need a small battery pack for that, but..."

"I dunno about solar, babe, that stuff's pretty weak."

"Well what do you want me to do, build an Arc Reactor magically?"

He sighed, over the line at her. "Obviously not. Okay, how would we do solar?"

"You'd have to put panels into your design. Tracks to keep them on and we'd need holes for the wires to go through. I'm thinking the suit's gonna have to have two layers."

"I think I'm with you on that one. One for the shell and one seperating you from all the equipment."

"Exactly..."


	4. Chapter 4 All In The Timing

Same disclaimer, read the others if you want to know what it says.

**All in the Timing**

"Okay, this is...weird..." Jessie's face contorted slightly, as she slipped on the second 'boot', the inner skeleton to it. It was cold and confining, and yet...fit her like a glove. In a good way. "I'm glad I let you have those old shoes of mine to build these around...man they're heavy. They fit, but they're heavy."

"I know, I picked them up and figured you'd feel like you'd gotten in trouble with the mob or something. You know, where they give you cement sneakers and let you play in the river a while?" Dan smirked up at her, fastening the second of the two metal feet he'd made her. He hurried it up, bolting them on really with old rollerblade-style closures he'd salvaged somewhere along the line. "Okay...done, gonna go plug you in. Now remember, hold on -"

"Hold on because I don't have the stabilizers yet, I know, I can't take off flying quite yet but we need to at least see if I got the ratio right for such small fans we just built in here...Don't worry so much. Got my helmet, you've already got the camera on the tripod and aimed this way, let's do this."

"Okay, okay...hold on. Got the switch?"

"Dur..."

"Okay fine, go. Just don't hit your head too hard on the ceiling."

"Thanks, darling," she said, rolling her eyes just as he turned the camera on. "Test thirteen, flight boots only. Commencing in five..." she counted the rest down, held onto the same ropes that'd once held on the grated platform in previous tests.

--

Jessica hurried in through the door of her classroom just in front of the teacher himself, taking the last seat there was in the front, her usual seat in fact. He was running a tad late, so he started everything up right away.

"Okay, I hope you all had good winter breaks, welcome to part two. You've all had plenty of time to brainstorm, drink so much you forget what project you wanted to do, and brainstorm again, so, don't say I didn't warn you. Everybody pass up your year-end project proposals to the front of your row, each row pass it all the way to the ... my right, your left, to the left," he motioned to the left side of the room, according to the students' perspective.

Her hands, still reddened from soldering the wiring into the shell of the beast they were creating, delved into her backpack, pulling out two sets of proposals, as people from the back started passing things forward. One proposal was the real deal - the full thing: Ambitious, bordering on a psychotically large amount of work, but a full suit with several gadgets they figured wouldn't be too hard to come up with, however unlike Tony Stark's suit it would be. Or the modest one: just the flight controls. More than likely if she turned this one in, they'd be done in a couple of weeks, rather than taking the entirety of the second semester to make the whole thing. This would be the easy road. Did she want to take the easy road? Did she ever take the easy way, with anything?

Jessica sighed, and, with a slight smirk at the thought of what they'd already gotten done…turned in the full-suit proposal, stuffing it on the bottom of the stack as all papers were handed over to her. The teacher took them without a second thought, as she put the milder project proposal back into her pack, and took out her notebook and pen for the lecture.

--

."BABE!" Danny tried shouting it over the loud, pounding music. For the eighth time. Black Sabbath blared over a pair of gigantic home-made speakers Jessie had turned in for last year's project. But still, no answer from her, just more welding at her table, working like nobody's business on the suit.

"Dr. Samuels? She'll be with you in just a sec," Dan called into the phone, setting it down outside. He himself went inside, in the mean time - and shut off all power to the garage at the circuit breaker box, which was much easier to get to than the stereo at that point. "Hey babe, I said your teacher's on the phone."

She'd already shut off the torch and given him an inquisitive look when everything had gone dead, powerless. "you couldn't have just come over here and tapped me on the shoulder?"

"As sexy as you are handling power tools and such," he said, giving her a peck on the cheek when she got over there, "you're dangerous with that blowtorch."

"Only if your head's made of metal. Oh wait, you WOULD be in danger, in that case," she teased, sticking out her tongue at him teasingly as she pulled off the welding helmet, and picked up the phone when he showed her it was outside, in the fresh air. "Yes, professor?"

"Jessica, hello. I was just going over your project proposal," her tech teacher began explaining, and it could be heard that he was leafing through the pages of said paper she'd turned in the day before. "I'm sure you knew I was going to have a few questions and concerns about such a tenacious goal for a simple end-of-the-year project."

"Oh of course. I wouldn't expect any less, ask away."

"I didn't think you'd mind. The first concern I have with something like this is the safety issue. It has to be safe and cleared to operate within school grounds."

"Say no more. The prototype I'm turning in has absolutely no weapons attached, and I've already taken a number of other measures. For instance, there will be a safety chip in it, so it is completely disabled without me inside the suit."

"Without you in it, or without someone in it?"

"Without me. I'm the only one who knows the code to punch in, there's a little keypad hidden on it, and I'm also the only person who's been working on the insides of this thing, so I'm the only one who knows where the security chip gets plugged into. And it's stored securely."

"Okay, I hope that works out for you when you build it, you know security systems are hard to manage sometimes, with all the extra wiring and programming."

"Oh, I already know it works, that's not an issue."

"Well, just because you've tested a security code on a pre-existing panel doesn't mean it - "

"I mean I've already got it built into the suit and it works like a charm," she'd obviously anticipated this. And, sure enough, he was reacting the way she expected him to.

"Into the - you mean you've already --"

"Yeah. I have. I mean, it's not a hundred-percent yet by any means, but the security system is up and running, successfully."

There was a long pause at the other end of the line.

"Well then, there go most of the other questions I had," Dr. Samuels finally squeaked out, obviously amazed….and nervous with anticipation.


	5. 5 How'd You Fix That Icing Problem?

Same disclaimer as always. Be cool, enjoy this.

Please R&R

A/N: thank you to all of you who've favorited, put this on your watch list, and commented! :D Love ya all!

A special thanks to miss Tex, who lets me bounce ideas off her brain like a basketball and reads this even though I know she doesn't like this sci-fi crap. ;)

--

**Chapter 5 - How'd You Fix That Icing Problem?**

Dozens of text messages and emails had been sent back and forth regarding this very day, and it was finally all paying off. Both teachers were leading their respective classes out into the courtyard between buildings. Both Jess and Dan had been allowed to head out there early to prepare, and there stood Daniel, next to his beautiful creation, so to speak. He was to present to his teacher first, of course.

"Dr. Louis, Dr. Samuels, hello. Jess will be here to explain her part in a bit, she had to go grab something from the car. In the meantime, Dr. Louis, here is my project. Finely folded steel-alloy. I employed the techniques of - " some ancient sword making peoples, blah blah blah. Either way, Dan explained his project in metalsmithing terms, quite the professional of course, that he was. He spent a good ten minutes explaining the construction phases and which layers were done which way, in which phase, standing proudly beside the finished product, which stood just about his own height, since Jessie was a bit shorter than him, and the suit gave her a few inches - and it'd been built for her, after all.

The whole thing was magnificent, polished to look like silver, only parts of it bearing the green patina he'd applied, making it a giant lime and silver suit. Very sleek, the work of someone who knew what he was doing with his hands…at least that's how Jess had put it just earlier that day, along with a lude wink. He'd kissed her for that one, and made quite the comment afterwards. They'd almost been late to finals because of it.

"Right…and now Jessica will present her final to you, Dr. Samuels," Dan nodded, and took a good few steps back.

Suddenly, the suit powered right up, all lights turning on. Very dramatic. The eyes glowed, a bright green to match the patina, courtesy of Jessica's flair for showmanship.

"Holy shit!" a student cried out, a male who looked a tad older than Jess or Danny, and he hurriedly ran behind the entire rest of his class, who were all standing there dumbly as the suit walked its way with thudding footsteps over towards Dr. Samuels, stopping just in front of him.

Dr. Samuels who seemed almost just as in awe of the creation, himself.

The large, very green gloved hand reached up, pressing a button that released the helmet from its vacuum seal with a small hiss. And there she was. Jessica's long blonde locks tumbled out of the helmet as it was removed, followed by a smug little smirk that graced the corners of her lips.

"And for my part of this thing, my project is the innards of the beast: a solar-powered animatronic body suit with flight capabilities and defense mechanisms."

She took a while to explain their suit, the building process, trials, almost cracking her skull open - which everyone found slightly amusing, sadists that humans can be - and all of the mechanical revelations. How it flew, how the thing was powered by solar cells that fed into a lightweight battery pack around the middle of the whole thing, how she figured out the one defensive 'weapon' this thing had - the flares.

--

Jess was just about to begin explaining the analysis they'd done based on footage of Mr. Stark's original creation, and how it varied from the one they'd built here, besides the obvious that it held a woman of her stature, not a guy who obviously worked out well. But the class, it seemed, started getting a tad antsy.

"Well, uh…how about I show you a couple of things it can do, and compare and contrast?" she asked of the teacher. "I'll just go a few feet off the ground here, just stay a few feet off and you'll be fine, it's not dangerous to be next to when it happens, and it can still get me pretty far up into airplane territory," she said, proud of herself for that one, at least.

"Yes, but have you solved the icing problem that happens when the suit gets too high up?"

Everyone was dead silent.

Tony. Fucking. Stark. His voice came from right behind her, where she'd backed up to start her demonstration of the suit.

It only took her a moment - just one blink.

"Of course I have. I've solved it by not going up into the atmosphere high enough for everything to freeze over. And you call yourself a genius," she teased, slightly there. A meek tease, though. This was a guy who could possibly just have her fined or sue her or worse because she didn't ask permission to build this -- but it was just going to the local science museum, disabled completely, after she was done with it today. So the pair had decided, long ago.

"Oh well why didn't I think of that?" Tony smirked, and took a few steps back, towards Danny. Danny who looked like he was about ready to piss himself because Tony Fucking Stark was standing right beside him. Tony who looked more like a movie producer or exec and was dressed in a pinstriped grey suit that made him look quite dashing, with thick sunglasses covering those eyes of his. "Okay, whenever you're ready then, show us what you've got, _gorgeous_."

"Yeah, c'mon babe, show him you don't have to be a billionaire to be able to do this," Danny said. Apparently Danny hadn't entirely appreciated the comment Tony had just made to his girlfriend, considering the way Tony had said it. Dan got to call her gorgeous. Not Stark. Stark didn't even know her real name!

Jess didn't even bother putting the helmet on, she just used the mechanical controls within the suit, and everything began whirring like an electric car, so barely audible. And soon, she was gently - moreso than Tony's creation, using something a bit more combustible by the looks of it - lifting off the ground, her hands balled up in fists. The flight stabilizers had been engineered a bit differently, and looked like little jet turbines coming out of the top of her fists, which she had balled up and at her side, keeping herself steady there. She didn't bother going very high or far, just floated around a little, with the ease of a practiced control.

Tony looked impressed, to say the least.

--

The class ended on time, with another presentation being held after that back in the classroom. Where Danny and Jess did _not_ join everyone in going.

As soon as their segment had ended, Tony stark asked to speak with them while the others went about their business, pulling Danny aside first while Jessica changed back into normal clothes. Tony started asking questions idly while Jess was gone. Things like how long had it taken to build the exterior of the suit, what metals did you use, what kind of paint, basic stuff. Very inquisitive.

As soon as the blonde emerged, in her most comfortable pair of khaki pants and a boy beater tank top, Tony stopped the inquisition for a proper introduction.

"Hey, there she is. The starlet herself. I, by the way, am Tony Stark, owner and operator of Stark Industries. I've heard so much about you…both of you, really. From your teacher, Mr. Samuels, who I actually went to high school with for a little while."

"I have to say it's a pleasure to meet you, because without you I wouldn't have had a class project," Jess smiled politely, and held out a hand, which Tony shook.

"Please, won't you join me in my car where we can talk a little more privately?" Tony offered, and started leading them just to the end of the field, where it was parked, Pepper Potts leaning against one of the back panels of the car in her matching black skirt suit.

Dan, however, was a bit more skeptical. "So what, you just thought you'd stop by to rub it in our face that you built a better one, out of better materials, with more of a budget to work from? Or what?"

"Danny!"

"Actually, no. Just the opposite. Considering the little accident that brought about the introduction of 'Iron Man', actually, I've been in a bit of a bind. I have no co-owner, not that I'm looking forward to getting a new one, I'm low on designers, and…to be quite honest, I'd like to completely change the face of the company. I need people who can do what I sorta do, I need people who can go off on their own and build a bigger better way to save the world from the terrorists my former friend, dear Obie Stone rest in pieces, uh…well, funded in my name," he said, bluntly as always. Pepper, by this time, had gotten closer to the conversation, and gave a slight scoff at Tony. Obviously, again, this wasn't what they'd discussed telling the 'kids'.

Danny scoffed as well, though it was a slightly different one. It was in disbelief and…shock, too.

"So, I wouldn't want you to make a decision like this, which I'm offering you two only so far, by the way, uh…without seeing what you'd be dealing with in the wake of his total hostile takeover. Ladies first," Tony had opened the car door - his way of begging them to get in and go to his home and lab, down in the southern part of the state.

Both Jessie and Danny looked at each other…then to Tony and Pepper…and then at the lavish insides of the modest limo. As modest as Tony could stand it, that is.


	6. Chapter 6 Arc Reaktor

Same disclaimer as always. Be cool. R&R's always appreciated. Thanks to everyone subscribed.

Wow, got it out sooner than I thought I would, and a lot longer. Hopefully this'll tide you over until I'm settled in at a new location :D Don't know if I'll be getting another chapter in the next two weeks, but I could be wrong.

Special thanks to Miss Tex for putting up with me throughout my bipolar moving-induced mood swings and reading this crap anyways ;) Not to mention the creative advice. Iron Frog would be confuzzled without her Tex.

--

**Arc Reaktor - 6**

It took them a few hours worth of driving to get from Norcal to Tony's Malibu estate, even the way "Happy" (the chauffer for lack of a more suiting title) drove. Perhaps his name, were he to become a superhero himself, might be Iron…Foot. Any way you put it, it didn't take them the full seven hours to get there.

"So, where's the suit?" Tony had inquired upon entering the car with his three companions.

"Oh, I had to leave it with the teacher, so he could grade it," that got Jess a look. "It's completely disabled, there's no way he'll figure out how to start it up without the missing ingredient, he just has to look it over for basic construction, the use of parts, aesthetic value. That sorta thing."

"Alrighty. Say, how tall are you anyways?"

"Five-six-ish."

"Five-six, hard height to be. Not quite an average, not quite a tall. Good height though."

"For what, exactly?" Dan chimed in. Jess had never seen him this way; he'd been rude before to people openly trying to cause trouble or harm to her - but he'd never seemed truly jealous, until Tony came along.

And Tony wasn't about to help that. Not in the least. It wasn't his fault the kid had attitude, he was just being…well… Tony.

"Well, see, I have these really sexy leather stilletto boots, that an ex-girlfriend left behind, they come up right past the kneecap. But they only look right on someone who's her height, which was five-six, and they can only be worn with black lace, nothing else," he'd honestly been joking about this all.

Pepper shook her head and grinned a bit of a reprimanding look over to Tony, Jessie laughed pretty well. Danny somehow missed all the humor in it. He brooded silently next to his girlfriend the whole rest of the way.

--

"Holy shit," Jess mentioned, catching sight of the Cliffside abode of Mr. Stark…and of the view it had.

"I've seen bigger," Danny said it…like he meant it: loud enough for Tony to hear.

"Make yourselves comfortable, I'm going to slip into something a little more comfortable for the night," Tony said, and was off, into his house.

It was late; this time of year, sunset was around eight-thirty. The last of the sun's rays had fallen below the horizon a little over an hour before their arrival, giving them a spectacular show of pink, orange, and purple clouds out over the water as it went.

As Jess and Danny crept their way into the unfamiliar house, Pepper scooted around them, having Jarvis open up the doors inside, and close those that led out for the night, keeping them safely inside.

"It's a bit late for you to be here, Pepper," the computerized British accent spouted, as she made her way in.

"Yes, good evening Jarvis, we have visitors. Jessie and Danny, this is Jarvis, he runs the house," Pepper explained, waving about, especially motioning over to a wall control unit, undoubtedly where the voice came from.

It blinked as he spoke. "Yes, Tony told me. It will be different, having some fresh blood in the workshop, if you two come down here with him. While I can't really physically help you up on the top floors, if you have a question or get lost, feel free to call on me."

"Has anyone ever told you you sound a lot like Paul Bettany, the actor?" Jess, of course.

"No, not really."

"I hate to interrupt, but I need to get going for the night. Let me show you to your rooms. And I'm sorry, but Tony didn't really tell me he was going to do this or I'd have a few more things ready for you for your stay. Like pajamas, for one thing. I don't know how long he'll keep you hostage here," an obvious joke, "but for tonight I'll go raid his closet for t-shirts you can sleep in. The guest bedroom is down this hallway, with an attached bathroom."

She hurried along and lights automatically illuminated both hallway and guestroom as she started in, courtesy of the computer with the nice voice. "If you're hungry or thirsty, or want a drink tonight, the kitchen's just off the living room we rushed through on our way in. And like he said, if you get lost or have a question, Jarvis is up all night, and there's nowhere you can't get ahold of him. He's not creepy, he won't follow you into the bathroom and spy on you, but you can still ask him where to find a new roll of toilet paper in there if you need to, he responds to us, not follows us around like a dog. Do you Jarvis?"

"Certainly not, Miss Potts. Tony has just informed me that you two have the run of the house while you're staying with us. He's even requested you come downstairs to the garage if you're not too tired, and join him in his work area."

The garage. Tony's sacred workshop, and they'd just been given an all-access pass.

"I'll just put your sleep shirts on the bed for you two. Goodnight," Pepper said, noting the look in Jessie's eyes - that dangerously curious look. It was quite similar to one Tony had whenever he was about to do something he probably shouldn't - like NOT sticking to the cue cards. Miss Potts already had a feeling Jess would be neck-deep in work downstairs by the time she got into her car and headed home.

"Jess, hey," Danny started in, as soon as Pepper had left the room, before Jessica had a chance to follow. "I dunno about this."

"What?" she replied, a mix of amusement and disbelief in the look and tone she gave him. "What don't you know about it, babe?"

"For starters, how about his reputation?"

"You're worried because he's a genius? Well that's new. Since when did you hate smart people?"

"Oh for crying out loud, Jessie, you KNOW what I mean! Look at the way he's been treating you. I don't trust him."

"Oh come on Danny, get real. He's a compulsive flirt, no different than an auto mechanic, it doesn't actually mean anything you know. Don't be stupid. Come on, come down to the garage with me and see what he's working on."

"Jessica, I do NOT like this situation at all. Can we PLEASE just go to bed and worry about getting home tomorrow?"

"You do know she was joking when she said Tony was holding us hostage, right?"

"Don't call him that."

"What? Don't call him what, his name?"

"His FIRST name, Jess, jeeze. We've known him for a few hours and you're already all over him?"

"Is this what this is about? You think because I have a little bit of the same sense of humor as he does that I'm falling madly in love with him? Gimme a break, that is the most ridiculous thing in the world."

"You know what, no, it's not that ridiculous. This man is a joke! He's playing you, with the promise of this that and the iron suit. What, you don't think he's got something up his sleeve?"

"Oh c'mon, like what? Like taking over the world one college student at a time?"

"Have you been listening to a word I've said?"

"No, have YOU heard yourself? I mean seriously. There's something wrong with you, right now. Your way of thinking is completely irrational at this point. Where the hell are you coming up with this stuff?"

"Oh so now you're just attacking me?"

"Weren't you just attacking me? You know what…sleep by yourself tonight…I don't have time for this crap."

"You know what, this is just what I thought would happen, you have no idea - "

"You just MADE this happen by pushing me, think about that," she interrupted, slamming the door to the guest bedroom on her way out.

Danny didn't follow her.

--

"Ah, there you are," Jarvis' voice rung out, turning down the music automatically when Jess came downstairs, looking a tad…peeved.

"Hey hey, welcome to my lair. Where's your boy toy, David?"

"Danny."

"Dan, right, so what's up, is he hitting the bar I have up there? Some good stuff if you'd like a drink too…"

"No, he's uh, he's not feeling like himself tonight, he went to bed early, hoping some extra sleep would help," it was slightly obvious she was upset with him, there. "So, what'd you want us down here for?"

"Shame he can't be here," Tony said, matter-of-factly. No, he wasn't interested in her alone, unlike what Danny had obviously leapt to the conclusion of. "Well, I was going to pick your brain a bit about designing and engineering. Step on over to Jarvis' screens if you would," Tony slid over on his rolling chair, making room for her at the metal desk.

"Okay, what do you want me to do?"

"Well I don't know, that's kinda up to you. See I think you've got what it takes to do something really great, and…I just…wanted to see what you could come up with."

She stared at the screen blankly. "I…I dunno if I can come up with something from scratch, I mean… Danny handed me a truck full of spare parts to work with and didn't leave me alone about it until I had an idea for the construction of the suit, so. I sort of need to see what I have to work with."

"Absolutely everything. Titanium, iron, gold, silver, platinum, copper, wiring, sheet metal, soldering, welding, casting, mechanics, circuit parts galore, anything you can think of." Jess got sort of a glazed look in her eyes. "Okay, how about this?" Tony picked up a laser pen and started pulling up files on Jarvis' 3-D projector. The infamous Arc Reactor, blueprints to it at least. "Can you make it smaller?"

"Well that's not hard, just diminish the sizes and keep the ratio in mind."

"Right, it sounds that easy, so how come nobody had been able to do it for thirty years?"

"I … have no clue. They weren't you? They didn't want to?"

"Mm, not quite. You actually have to tweak the ratios when you start getting it this small," he tapped his chest, a metallic sound to it. See, nobody but Pepper and Rhodey knew anymore about Tony having to wear one.

Jessie's eyes widened, to say the least. "You don't…"

"Keeps the shrapnel out of …some part of my heart, I have no idea," his mind seemed to shift there, and he moved his chair farther back, looking her over curiously. "Hey Jarvis, how's that repair coming?"

"Ninety-Nine percent complete, sir," was the reply. "Approximately thirty minutes left until it is wearable again."

"Wearable?" Jess quirked her brow at Stark, and the way he was looking her over. He was sizing her up….he was…seeing if the suit would work?? "No…no no no no no…I … I couldn't," she shook her head.

"What, a gold-titanium alloy suit painted hot-rod-red isn't up to your standards?" he teased.

"Quite frankly, I prefer green. But seriously, I can't… isn't it illegal to fly without air clearance?"

"Technically, only if you go high and slow enough to get caught on radar. I've got a friend who's got a friend… It's fine, really. How high up did you get with your suit?"

"I don't know, I was just concerned with getting off the ground and NOT giving myself a concussion doing it for once. I didn't think it was a good thing that the guys at the E.R. were on a first-name basis with me and knew my favorite foods."

"Oh, wow…so you're…almost completely inexperienced. I did not expect that from someone like you, you seem so much more…adventurous, headstrong, … ballsy."

"It was a stupid project I really didn't think would even ever work, to be quite honest. I'm no Tony Stark."

"Well…you might be right about that, you're not me, but that doesn't mean you're not just as good at it or better. I turned pre-existing weapons I'd designed into a wearable, larger, moving weapon. You built yours from used car parts, and managed to do it without having graduated from M.I.T. or using an arc reactor. I'd say that takes a lot of brains. More than a paper mache volcano at least."

This was almost too good to be true. Maybe Danny was right… Nah.

"That said…I think I'd like to make a few modifications to the Mark 4, with your help," Tony didn't waste time, he brought up the file, the next incarnation of the infamous suit..

--

By six in the morning, Danny couldn't take it any longer. He'd been up nearly all night thinking this all over, wondering about his own reaction. First, actually, he'd been cussing Jessie out. Then reevaluating why he was with her. Then came the realization that yes, he did love her, and it would hurt him to lose her. Then he cussed her out for that, in his mind. And around five-thirty he'd started coming to his senses about the whole thing.

That was about the same time Pepper got in, oddly enough, a good and perhaps overly dedicated assistant. The smells of coffee brewing crept across the main floor, and then…

Danny realized that Jess had never come to bed that night. Well, that didn't help his slight insecurity about the issue he'd expressed to her the night before. Didn't help it at all. He hurried out of bed, and quickly began looking around the first floor. No sign of her, not even in (he looked through the open door, not so obsessive as to break in, but still obsessive enough) Tony's room. That was ood. Until he realized they'd been downstairs with a bunch of who knew what sorts of places there were to do naughty things in -- and of course Danny would know about doing naughty things.

--

As Danny followed Pepper downstairs, one mug of coffee and a large scheduling book in her hands, and two more cups of coffee that he carried, Danny quickly figured out exactly what his girlfriend had been doing, up all night with Tony Stark instead of him.

"Oh yeah, that's the spot," Tony praised her, while she was kneeling down beside him. "You're getting really good at this welding stuff, that was perfect. No visible seam." (a/n: ha…and you thought I meant… HAHA!)

"Why thank you Mr. Stark, you may pry your foot loose now," she smirked as she stood up, pulling off the welder's mask and putting the torch down on the floor gently.

"Tony," Pepper interrupted, handing him a mug as she started spitting information at him. "We need to go over today's schedule."

Jess, on the other hand, turned slightly disappointed eyes towards her boyfriend, until she spotted the mug of coffee he was sliding over to her on the desk. A peace offering.

"I'm an asshole."

"That's an understatement," Jess took the mug up and took a sip.

He looked at her, a bit surprised. He hadn't exactly expected her to agree THAT quickly. "I'm sorry."

"You should be, you really missed out last night. Now you don't know how an arc reactor works, or how to make one. Unlike me."

"Oh yeah? Shit, I did miss a lot. How'd you find out?"

"I slept with him and he coughed the information right up," she teased him. Danny winced slightly. "Danny, you're an idiot half the time, but I still love you and I would never really do that to you. Live with it."

"I'm trying to realize that, but could you at least spare me the jokes for a little while, when you know I'm having a panic attack over it?"

"Sure, how much is a little while? Like five minutes?" she grinned at him mischievously.

"Pepper, you know I don't like you rushing me out of here. It's my company, I don't need someone else walking me through the building I grew up running around. Thank you. Is it your birthday or something, have you got plans?" the whole while he was saying this to her, she was blatantly ignoring him, just kept talking about the schedule, heh. Old married couple much?

"No, it's not, no I don't, but you DO need to go take the tour with the foreman. At one you have a press conference about how the reconstruction is going, and what direction you're taking the company in now."

"But are you really going to let me say what you know I want to do with it?"

Pepper sighed. "It's your company, by all means, say what you want to do with it, just let me know now if you're going to stop making weapons so I can start looking for a new job for when you go bankrupt."

"Spoil Sport."

"I know."

"Your eyes look lovely today, is that a new shade?"

"Yes, actually."

"Looks good on you."

"Thank you, but you still have to go."

"Not working today, really?" he seemed disappointed.

"No," she said flatly, not even shaking her head, just looking at him.

"I blame it on the coffee and the bad Jackson Pollack we saw yesterday."

"Tony, get dressed."

"Yes, Miss Potts."

"Jessie, your panels are done," Jarvis announced, as Tony hurried upstairs to get dressed for the day of touring and talking, however against his wishes.

"Panels?" Danny inquired, suddenly intrigued.

"Yep, Panels. Gotta keep this stuff safe," she lifted one foot. On the end, overlapping and going over her pants, a large metal-alloy boot was secured where her shoes would be. It looked like pure silver, but it was much, much different. It was the same metal as Tony's suit, which hung securely on one of Jarvis' hooks just on the other side of the garage. Only, having no protective outer flaps yet, the animatronics inside could clearly be seen.

Danny's eyes took them in, and then turned up towards her. "Jess…you're not really…Are you?"

"It's just a prototype. It happens to fit me because it can. But Tony and I went through a lot of ideas and upgrades last night that we have to test, and this is the best way to do it. You're looking at part of the Mark Four." As she spoke all this, Jessica moved over towards a large wall-unit that hissed open as she neared; a small, drawer-like container protruded out towards er, and opened at Jarvis' request. "Help me snap these on?"

Danny moved over to her, a bit in shock and even somewhat in awe at it all, that they'd been designing all night and done so much. Without him. Well, he felt a bit sheepish, and really, a tad unnecessary. None the less, he took what she held out for him - panels with snap-on points, in both glossy black and lime green. He smirked, a bit, at that.


	7. 7 Planes, Trains, and Auto Wrecks

Again a many thanks to everyone who's added this and anybody who comments.

Please comment! I'd like to know what you guys think - especially if you think something's wrong with it. Thank you.

Same disclaimer as everybody else, be cool.

And thanks, Tex mwah

--

**Chapter 7 - Planes, Trains, and…Auto Wrecks**

"Look at the modern-day automobile, nobody fifty years ago could even conceive of what they'd be capable of, what they'd look like. But somewhere, there was some designer, maybe fresh out of college, who came up to them and said, 'Hey, wouldn't it be fab if you did this?' And I'm sure he was laughed at, too. Any other questions you'd like to ask me because you don't think I can answer them without looking like an idiot, Miss Vanity Fair?" Tony asked her back, right in the middle of the press conference.

She'd just made a futile attempt at a ball-busting question, and didn't seem up for trying another one, just yet.

"Tony!" another reporter called, claiming his turn. "What do you think about the reports that two undergrads up north might have built a suit like yours?" There was an audible buzz, it would seem, as all of the members of the press scooted closer to the podium, to hear this.

"I think it's ridiculous; their suit didn't have nearly as many capabilities as mine, it wasn't even powered the same way. It really wasn't like mine at all."

Well that caused a slight sensation. He'd just confirmed the existence of such a thing, and acknowledged that he knew about it (and had seen it) all at the same time. Now a lot more people had questions.

"Are you taking any legal or otherwise action against them because they made it without permission?"

"Against them? No. Good grief, why would I be that much of an asshole? I was actually thinking of offering them jobs here, we're a little short on developmental personnel at the moment."

That got a laugh.

About then, Rhodey interrupted. "Excuse me, folks, that's all the time we have for today, no more questions, Mr. Stark will see you another time, I'm sure. Thank you all for coming." He proceeded to scoot Tony off the stage, so to speak, leaving everyone to compare notes.

"Well that went amazingly better than any of us expected back here," Pepper teased, as they joined her and the two 'kids' in the hallway behind the press conference room.

"Told you I had it handled and didn't see a need for the cards. But would you listen?"

"Well, considering your most recent history with press conferences - " Pepper smirked, reminding him.

"No. You know, you two," he looked at Pepper and Rhodey pointedly, "might as well be two old, stereotypical Jewish mothers, you guys fuss over me so much. Ever since that little hostage incident… If you're not careful, people are going to start thinking you two actually care about me. Now - "

"Tony - " Pepper tried to interrupt.

"Nope! Don't care. I have a project to get back to, I - "

"Tony, Mr. Banner's here looking to meet with you. He says there's some kind of job you offered him while you were gallivanting around one nigh…" Pepper insisted. After all, it was her job to keep him on schedule and on track.

"Well why didn't you say so?" Pepper could have hit him as he said this. "Where is he?"

"Staring at the Arc Reactor."

"Okay, good, I need to take these two over there anyways. Rhodey, it's great to see you again - "

"Oh no, no you don't. I recognize that guy's name," Col. Rhodes shook his head at his friend, a stern look on his face. Tony took back the hand he'd extended a moment ago, trying to shoo off his friend. "I even noticed the two college kids who look like they've had no sleep from staying up all night, but I don't know whether it's from working in your garage or partying with you - "

"- That's ridiculous, I barely drink anymore," Tony said rapidly.

"I know how you operate, Tony, after all these years, don't give me that - " Rhodey gave him a disbelieving look.

"No, seriously, I haven't had time, I've been working."

"Speaking of which, you can't go off playing superhero without me anymore, so you'd better have my suit ready."

"You said you weren't interested," Tony reminded his friend.

"Yeah, but now I've seen it and I know you're not as crazy as I thought you were at first. I know you've got an extra suit, and - "

"Oh, no. You thought I went ahead and built you one anyways? That was a prototype of the Mark Four, I haven't finished it yet. Besides, technically that one's _her _suit," Tony nodded over to Jess.

"Oh, so I see, you tempted me with that one hanging around when I came by to save your ass, and then you give it over to someone else, no offense miss," at this point it was just Tony and Rhodey messing with each other, as they loved to do.

"Well she _is_ helping me redesign it, so I altered it to fit her specifically, yeah. Seriously, though, if you want one of these, you're going to have to speak up, because I can only make so many at a time, and - " Tony rationalized.

"I have, okay, this? This is me speaking up. I'm in."

--

"Daniel James Crowe." His name was called from the baling man at the podium; a man who was enthused about the cap and gown solely for the fact that it gave him a break from the dead-animal-esque toupee he usually let rot on top of his head, until it itched.

Danny tried to contain laughter as he reached the man, and calmly shook his hand instead, before taking his degree in hand. A well earned one, at that. Pausing for the usual photo-op at the end of the runway, he proudly switched the 'golden' tassel to the other side of his cap, and went around the other side of the ramp to reclaim his seat for the remainder of the ceremony.

Jess and Danny exchanged warm smiles, mouthing loving, proud phrases to each other from a few rows apart. It seemed to take forever to her for toupee man to call her name.

But finally -- "Jessica Lynn Gunn."

"Yes!" she mouthed silently to Danny. It felt so great. She couldn't remember a time when she'd been happier than now, finally being recognized as not being a complete failure.

Jess walked right down that ramp, grinning from ear to ear. She strode with the confidence of an accomplished young woman, with her blonde hair tucked into a neat and proper bun under her cap. She looked lovely, confident, strong - ready to take on the rest of the world.

Only she hadn't expected the stage behind her to suddenly start exploding. That she wasn't quite ready for.

Students, seats, and metal bleacher beams alike were suddenly, with a noise loud enough and a force powerful enough to disorient a rhino, heaved across the outdoors public venue. A fold-up picnic chair took her cap off, missing her actual head by a few centimeters, at most. The blast rang in her ears enough so that she couldn't hear anything for quite some time-- an annoying ringing replaced screams of terror and pain.

Unknown to herself, she gave a scream herself (not that she could hear it), jumping -- no, she was pushed -- off the stage and onto the rigid grass of the football field below. A few people jumped over her as she curled up into a protective fetal ball; a few still ran into her, or sharply kicked as they tripped over her, heading for the nearest exit.

Still her ears rang and buzzed once the traffic had died down, but she looked up and could still see remnants of the panic in what dwindling a crowd there still was. Toupee man now resembled something of a wrinkled baby, his face contorting with the agony of confusion and shock. His cap had flown off as well, leaving him cowering with that look, his hands clasped over his exposed cranium.

Finally the entire place slowly began to roar with sound again, in her ears. People kept disappearing through the exits in a panic just as sirens approached the rampant chaos. As she looked back over her shoulder, she quickly learned why so many people had ran - and how few of the graduating class had actually made it out of the area.

She spotted just a hand, hanging off the stage like, if the fingertips had eyes, they'd be looking at her as she stood up. It had a brand new, freshly-polished class ring, and nothing else attached. Suddenly, she was sorry she'd had that extra pancake at IHOP that morning. But even as she gagged, a slow realization crept over her - where was Danny?

"Dan?" she squeaked out, voice cracking, and another wave of nausea went over her as she was hit by the smell of burning hair, flesh, caps, gowns. "DANNY?!"

No response.

With what strength she could muster, Jess clambered back up onto the stage. "DANNY! Danny?"

She saw horrible, horrible things, the closer she got to the blast area, several rows back from the area she and Danny had been sitting in.

"DANNY?!" alarm was obvious in her tone.

"JESSICA!" It came from behind her, near the exit, where people had ram right over her to get to. "JESSIE!"

She spun around - he was in the guest seating area. He'd gone right past her, not seeing her and assuming she'd already made it out. And there he was. He wasn't missing any limbs, she saw as she ran over towards him, but he was bleeding from a few places. A bit more than a gentle scratch from his side, his mock-gold and green gown now had crimson accenting it, and he held a hand over that side, protectively. Blood seeped down his face from a small gash in his forehead. Adrenaline was probably all that was keeping him up.

She hugged him anyways. And when he hugged back, she screamed again, vision swirling, only then realizing she wasn't getting out of this unscathed. Her ribs - something hurt there, badly, especially where she remembered being kicked, and where something had pushed her down.

"Come on, the ambulances are here already," he muttered to her, and they managed to pull each other out, to seek treatment.


	8. 8 Angel of Destruction

Tex baby, eat your heart out with the jokes on this one

Same disclaimer as always.

Okay, I lied about the delay in posting, but seriously, I'm on a role and we're leaving Saturday, so I thought I'd get this out there… THEN I won't be posting again for a while : )

--

**Chapter 8 - The Angel of Destruction**

"It has been confirmed: Monday's explosion on a northern-California Technical college was a planned assault. Police and forensic investigators were coming to this very conclusion when they received a letter from an unidentified suspect, calling himself a messenger of God. The letter is being analyzed now, but so far no arrests have been made in this case; a dangerous situation considering that, in his letter, this self-proclaimed 'angel' admitted to targeting two students. These are the same two students who made a Youtube uproar when a teacher videotaped their class final project - a home-made Iron Man suit," even the newscaster sounded impressed.

"Those two students were seated close to where the bomb went off, and are still in critical condition in a local hospital near the campus."

"Thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D.," Danny mentioned, putting an arm around Jessie's shoulders, very carefully, as she cuddled up next to him.

"Yeah, I just hope they find that psycho," Jess muttered, wincing slightly when she lay down. Three cracked ribs were not fun, especially, as she'd found out the night before, when trying to mess around with your equally-injured boyfriend (unsuccessfully).

Even in the comfortable surroundings of Tony Fucking Stark's Malibu estate's guest room.

"I just hope he doesn't decide to come after _this_ place - for several reasons," Dan mentioned.

"Yeah? Like what, you're afraid he'll show up and I'll break my hand next, in the process of strangling him?"

"Exactly," Danny laughed as he said it, earning a playful push, "I'm afraid for his life, man, you're dangerous!" He stole a kiss.

"Mm, don't kiss me like that," she protested, though she obviously didn't like having to protest such a thing.

"What? Why? Saving your lips for Tony Stark, are you?" He'd at least started joking about it with them, finally.

"You jackass," she teased, shaking her head at him. "Because…I can't do what I wanna do to you when you kiss me like that, at least not until the same time you get your stitches out," she pouted.

He would've said something smart, but the feeling was mutual. …. Oh come on, who are we kidding?

"Thought you were gonna try to rip them out anyways, last night. Damn, you're rough."

"Good thing, imagine how it'd be if I _didn't_ love you," she smirked at him, having to peer up from his shoulder.

"I dunno…as soon as we're healed, I think I'm gonna purposely pick another fight with you just to find out how it might be…"

--

"Be gentle?" Tony begged.

Jessica stood over him, late in the day. She glanced over his bare, muscled chest, to the space where his miniature arc reactor sat, glowing, keeping pieces of shrapnel out of his heart, and then back up to his face. "Are you sure you're up for this?"

"Well, we have to now. I trust you…"

"Okay, but wouldn't you prefer it to be quick? I mean, what if Pepper walks in and freaks out?" Jess asked of him, setting her hand on the desk he was laying on downstairs.

"Well yeah, I didn't say gentle had to be slow. She won't freak, it's not like she has any claim to me, just… you know, don't just do what she does and blindly yank."

"Okay, but if you want me to get it all out and you trust me, I might have to get a little rough to get the job done."

"You like rough, huh? I like that," he said, slyly. "Okay, let's just hurry this up, before they do interrupt us."

"Deep breath then, I'm going in…" (that's what he said ;) ) Jessica warned him, un-doing … the arc reactor in his chest, duh. What'd you think they were doing? Sicko. She twisted the little glowing circular-framed object until it came loose, and lifted it out without undoing it entirely, so that she could peer in there. "Yep…yeah, I think I can get my hand in there without unplugging you, but you were right - it's definitely time to clean it out. You've got a whole mess of mechanical discharge from the reactor."

"Yeah, don't talk, just do it, before that thing gets too far away and I end up in cardiac arrest," Tony winced at the thought. Especially the though of what she was doing. Jess had just pulled 'Dummy' over, one of Tony's little gadgets that was, basically, a giant rolling arm. Usually he held either a magnifying glass or a fire extinguisher, and occasionally other things.

Such as today's little glory - a rather dentist-like tool, used for suctioning the goop out. In this case, out of his chest cavity that housed the miniature arc reactor that kept him alive.

She was just in the middle of what she was asked to do, when Pepper walked right in - almost dropping her coffee. "Oh my gosh, okay, did NOT need to see this, I'm so sorry, I'm just…Ew…" she walked right back out and up the stairs to the main floor.

Jessie looked down at Tony inquisitively.

"She stuck her hand in there last time, there was a bare wire. Poor thing."

"Ew…I can see where she'd be grossed out by this, then. You're lucky I used to work on motorcycles and sometimes cars - Hey! Dummy!" Jess was chastising the machine, who was trying to move away even though she wasn't done. "What's this? You're not done, sit. Stay." Obediently, but painfully slowly, it moved back into position, holding the tool deeper into the cavity for her.

"Dummy, you screw up one more time and you're getting donated to a community college. I mean it this time, I can make a better model, I don't have to keep you around. I do it out of the kindness of my heart," Tony threw in there. The machine made a little whirring noise in response. "Damn A.I. No offense, Jarvis."

"None taken, sir. Miss Potts would like to know if it is safe to come back downstairs yet," Jarvis reported dutifully.

"Yeah, I think I'm done with the gross part, tell her it's safe," Jessie nodded, and gently pushed Dummy out of the way. "Okay…new arc reactor," she grabbed it from the table as she said it, and moved over, sticking her hand boldly into Tony's now-clean(ish) slot for it. She unplugged the old one, and quickly screwed the new one in, tapping it as it glowed to life, saving his life really.

"Alright, next time, warn me, okay?" Pepper asked, as she punched in her code on the keypad to get inside the workshop. "Tony, that dinner party's in three hours - "

"Three and a half, actually," Tony mentioned. "I already know. Jarvis already has my suit out for me - "

"No, I took your suit to get cleaned, it's another … themed party for some Hollywood socialite, I don't even remember who this time."

"I believe it's one of Heff's girls' birthdays, isn't it?"

"How do you remember that and not your own birthday? I mean really?" Pepper asked, shaking her head.

"Talent, my dear, sheer talent," by this time, Tony had put his shirt back on, and slid over beside the Mark 4, making a few adjustments as it hung there.

Jess was still cleaning up when Danny arrived back at the house, pulling into the garage near where they were working, in the silver Audi R8. He looked good in it, too, hehe.

"Well," Pepper continued, "It's Bollywood-themed, so I also picked up another suit for .. You, Danny," he was just hopping out with a Starbucks in hand, a cool drink for a hot day, "and I have a sari for Jess to wear. I'll show you how to put it on the right way, it's hell to get the hang of."

"Okay, but you'll have to show her later," Tony said, looking over between Pepper and Jess. "We're going out for coffee now that the car's back. Tech talk, you know. Besides, we need our once-daily break."

Jess already had the keys in hand, having stolen them from Danny with a kiss. "Hurry it up, Stark." Tony gave a 'yeah yeah yeah' expression, wiping his hands of the mechanical grease of what he'd just worked on.

"Hey, be safe out there," Daniel told them both - mainly Jessica, as he opened the driver's door for her.

--

"Well you know, it's not going to be much of a change in the suit exterior, so I'd like to add something else to the interior. Have you ever dabbled in practical applications for sound waves?" Tony was asking her as they both stepped out of the R8. Aah, the Malibu Starbucks.

They walked along the side of the Malibu "country" mart, passing the Juicy Couture and Shabby Chic with hardly a look. The Pacific Coast Highway roared to life a hundred or so yards away as the light changed to green, and the view of the ocean was obscured by convertibles, SUV's, and something fenced (but left open-gated) that was masquerading as a park. Not that there was much grass -- Malibu was never green at that point in the summer.

"If by practical you mean deadly, no, I HAVE built speakers for a project once though," Jess shook her head. "You know what I'd really like to look into, though? Nanotechnology, I think that'd really add something to it."

"Eh, that stuff's still a little iffy to work with, though," Tony shrugged, not entirely liking the idea.

"Well so is an arc reactor," she pointed out, rather slyly, slipping in through the glass door Tony held open for her at the coffee shop.

"Touche, Gunn," was all Tony admitted, before glancing over a walking Barbie doll leaving the place, smirking to himself as he watched her go out the door. It'd been…too long. He was just paranoid about the effect seeing an arc reactor for the first time might have on an unsuspecting, supple young thing - or at least on the type he usually went for. Then again, if he had someone like Jess here…. He thought, examining her as she examined the menu. Wait -- he just checked Jessie out?? He really was getting desperate. Not that there was anything wrong with her, she was pretty cute, but she wasn't someone he'd usually go for…well… Tony cleared his throat anxiously with that thought. "You know what, I'm going to go back and check out that Sunglass Hut. Get me a regular coffee?"

"Okay. Nothing else?"

"Nope, just coffee," he said, shoving some money into her hand that he'd pulled out of his wallet - a strangely normal thing to do for a billionaire-superhero. And he was off and running.

"Great boyfriend you've got there, hands you money and runs. Bet you're holding onto him as long as you can," a very sultry, amused male voice with the hint of an accent mentioned, just behind her in line.

Jess couldn't help but smirk at that thought, and shook her head a bit. "Actually, that guy's a lot harder to hold onto than my _actual_ boyfriend," she commented, glancing over her shoulder at him as she purposely distanced her relationship to Tony. After all, they _weren't_ dating, she loved Danny very much. Danny had made such a big deal out of Tony that she decided to be a little more specific about NOT having anything romantically to do with Tony.

The guy who nodded back casually to her was actually drop-dead gorgeous. The accent coupled with the sturdy pout as she looked over his well-over-six-foot frame reminded her of the Greek guy she'd dated before Danny: only he'd been a nice little Greek boy, who had dinner with 'Mamma' every Sunday. This Greek boy was a towering Achilles with a nearly-shaved head, dark stubble just growing back, and deep, mysterious bad-boy eyes. She liked…but she still preferred Danny's slightly more charming and smoldering than mysteriously on fire. It was just better long term, where as this … heh… demi-god from Mount Olympus had 'one night to remember' written all over him. Good thing she didn't like that type, usually.

"Really?" asked Achilles, mirthfully. "You and he look good together. Then again, I've never seen you with your very lucky _actual_ boyfriend," he made fun of her tone when she'd said that earlier, a good-natured jest. "I wonder if you'd look better with him or not, though." But for the accent, she maybe would've not liked this conversation - but maybe it was his culture to say odd things like that to total strangers. She didn't know.

"I do happen to look better with my boyfriend," she snickered, stating it simply enough, and hinting - that if he was flirting with her, he was wasting his time. Then again, he could've looked at her and she'd think he was flirting.

She moved up in line, and ordered her drinks quickly, paying, before it was Zues' turn. While she was anxiously waiting for them to be made, he came back over to her, pesky little demi-god.

"I'm Antreas, by the way," he leaned flirtatiously on the barrier between the public and the espresso-making machines, smiling at her.

"It's been interesting talking with y - "

Tony had hurried up to her, in the time they were … okay, let's face it, flirting, like a mad scientist with a fool-proof plan to take over the world. He promptly put a pair of sunglasses over her eyes, mid-sentence, cutting her off.

"Tell me you don't get an idea when you look through those," he dared her. But she didn't…and the look on her face showed as much as the confusion she was going through.

"They're sunglasses, Tony, with little circuit board designs in the glass. Not even good designs, obviously this person has never put one together."

"Well see, that's what I'm talking about, think about what you said to me while we were walking in here." He looked expectantly to her, until it sunk in - her jaw nearly dropped, her eyes obviously widened there. "Total nerdgasm, isn't it?" he picked up his coffee, smugly.

"Hey, aren't you - " the barista who made their coffee started to ask of Tony.

"Nope, never seen him before in my life," he said, not missing a beat. "So what about it? Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Pinky?" he asked Jess.

"I think so, Brain, but how're we going to get the hippopotamus in there?" she mentioned, flipping the sunglasses up to the top of her head - claiming them. Hehe.

"Come on then," he started pulling her right out of the shop…forgetting her coffee.

About halfway out the door, she turned back and rushed past Zues to get her frappucino with a polite, sardonic smirk. After all, they'd just met - she didn't owe him more than that on the pleasantries.

"Nice talking to you, Jessica," he bid her, as she rushed off once more.

It took her until they were pulling into the Stark Industries parking lot, going to work on the nanotech, before she realized she'd never told Antreas her name.


	9. A Note

For those who read my series Iron and Gold --

It's been a year, and I honestly apologize for the complete and utter lack of updates and writing. I've been through the ringer this year, and my excuses are many, though I don't particularly want to share every single one of them with anyone who hasn't already heard all of them. Suffice it to say, I've moved three times in the last year, gone through three different positions at my job (steps up, but that includes a LOT more work), and had several emergencies to boot. I'm just now starting to get back on my feet, even if I'm a few levels farther down from where I was.

I know what I wanted to do with it, but I think I'd also like some suggestions because I'm having a hard time - after a year - actually doing it to them all. If any of you still care and still have any ideas, that is. I'm at a crossroads with my two characters, so pretty much anything is open to my mind.

Suggestions, comments?

Thrill me

-- J.P.


End file.
